First Impressions
by Arikiey
Summary: Luffy is the average teenage student in his second year of high school. Zoro recently moved and transfered to said high school. When the two meet, it leaves a lot of questions between the two of them. ZoLu, AU
1. Chapter 1: The Guy

**A/N: Hmm… everything was pretty much in the summary thing… is that what it's called? I forget. Anyway, I'll just say this for the rest of the story so that I don't have to do it at the beginning of every chapter.**

**Warning: Rated M for a reason. MalexMale action. Swearing. Violence. And if anything new comes up I'll post. I you do not like it, I would advise you to stop reading. Any other stuff…? Oh, Luffy will be very OOC in this fic. I just don't think his overly energetic character would go with this plot so I made him a bit… solemn…**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own One Piece.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoy~~~**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

**The Guy**

It was raining heavily. Then again I already knew. I always had a knack for predicting the weather whenever I glance up at the sky but I never really say what I think, if you know what I mean. To be honest, I kind of liked rainy days such as this. I would normally grab a chair and sit by the window staring outside while drinking some sort of hot soup. The quietness in the house would lead me to peace and the sound that the rain made outside would make me think. The skies grey and full of dark clouds but it never cancelled out the light that came down. As much as I would've liked to carry out my rainy-day ritual, I had school which was compulsory to go to. Yeah, you could skip but I never really bothered. One, my older brother Ace would get mad at me and two, it was always so much trouble; you would have to call the school about your absence, make up a good reason for staying at home, and overall trying to entertain yourself. You couldn't go out if you skip school since people would get on your case and you couldn't really do much else at home.

By now I was about to walk out the door, carrying my umbrella and my schoolbag. It never really troubled me to go to school but it was a bother to walk there though. I didn't want to get a bus pass seeing as I don't really travel much and I only lived about a thirty minute walk away from school so I could manage. Ace doesn't live with me anymore because he works somewhere out of town so I couldn't ask him for a lift. And even if he did live with me, I feel that asking him for a lift to school would be troublesome. I usually try my best to blend into the background, never wanting to stand out. But I suppose it was just me.

As I walked, the harsh, cold winds blew against me, making my reasonably long, spiky black hair go everywhere. It also didn't help seeing as I was holding a rather cheap umbrella which simply got turned inside out due to the force of the wind.

I sighed as I dumped the fragile umbrella into a bin I walked past and braved on the rain. I had a large coat which helped but the downside was that it wasn't waterproof and absorbed water like a sponge. OK, I'm exaggerating, the water droplets stuck onto the surface of the coat before very slowly becomes absorbed or falls off whenever I make sudden movements such as when I readjust my bag when it's about to fall.

The walk to school had been long, like always, and I was glad when I was greeted with the warm heating of the schools central heating. I was currently in Senior High, at the age of 17. The school was big and resembled that of an old castle with modern features and a modern internal design.

Glancing at the clock as I walked past reception to homeroom, I saw that I was around forty five whole minutes early. School starts at 8:40AM and I left at around 7:20 so it adds up. Normally I wouldn't arrive this late but I figured that after walking in the rain, it would take a while to dry off.

The whole school was quite and pretty much deserted as I proceeded towards my homeroom, aside from one or two teachers walking around sorting things out. Alas, I reached my homeroom and slid open the door only to be surprised. I was the first one to homeroom, and I was always the first one there but not today. There, I saw head down, buried inside crossed arms and lying on the table in my seat at the back right next to the window was some guy I've never even seen before.

Recovering from the shock, I quietly walked up the small flight of stairs to the back of the classroom. There were five rows of benches and tables. A column of them beside the windows, a column in the middle and a column on the other side opposite the windows. A small flight of stairs between each column. I was taken back by the situation quite a bit. Something like this never really happened to me before. I didn't want to get his attention because he looked as if he was asleep and he most likely was. Should I wake him and ask for my seat back? Then again it was only a seat and I never wanted to make a fuss about something as irrelevant as a position in the classroom but I always preferred to sit at the back in a corner to avoid attention. Never once had I really talked to anyone and this was just strange.

I ended up standing there for god knows how long and my clothes were practically dry. Maybe I should just sit down next to him… but I don't want to make it seem as if I want to sit around him. I was baffled… speechless and completely confused as to what to do.

"Am I in your seat?" a low, muffled voice suddenly broke the silence.

I was surprised to say the least. At first this person looked… well, you know but he is actually turning out to be quite sharp. The guy raised his head and looked at me and it was then that I realised that I hadn't said anything.

"Y-yes…" I replied, nervous as to what the guy was thinking.

Instead of telling me to go away or saying that I should deal with it, he literally slid across the right towards me, effectively making room for me in my "seat", and went back to what he was originally doing until I "disturbed" him.

Slightly weirded out by his behaviour, I slid into the seat which was quite warm.

How long had he been here…?

Said person sitting next to me had on the normal school uniform. A black gakuran* with black trousers. He wore dark green boots and the white shirt he wore had a few buttons at top undone and from what I saw earlier when he lifted his head, he was quite muscular and toned if you could not already tell from his body build. He also had short cut green hair which was a first for me. And now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever seen him around before and if I had, I would've definitely remembered the hair.

I paid no mind to it and set towards my own business, there were still approximately thirty minutes left before school officially started and students would soon be pouring in so I took out my folder of artwork that I do and started drawing. People who have seen my artwork say it's amazing and all but I don't really think so. I follow a style of art called manga and it's known worldwide. There are many styles of manga but I've taken a liking to one kind. Any of you guys seen anime's such as "Angel Beats" and "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya"? Well I follow that style of art, with the big glossy eyes and almost invisible noses. I had started out learning and drawing like that but eventually I found that it looked a bit fake so I added a bit of realism into it. Making the eyes smaller and more human shaped, defined the noses more and overall made it look more real rather than exaggerated. I find it easy to draw this style since all I do is draw a few curvy or straight lines until it looks good.

The classroom was silent and the rain still patted on the windows outside. Aside from that, the only sound within the confined walls of the classroom were of my pencil meeting the paper. I was in the middle of indicating my characters jaw-line until-

"That looks good"

I was surprised but nodded at him. '_Please don't start a conversation with me. Please don't start a conversation with me. Please don't start a conversation with me…'_ I chanted over and over in my head.

"Where'd you learn to draw like that?" the green haired guy asked

"My uncle taught me…" I replied

"Do you have anymore drawing on you?"

"No…"

"How long you been drawing?"

"A while…"

By now I had stopped in my tracks completely. Staring blankly at the work on my paper pad in front and trying my best to not go into a conversation. I was quite a sociophobe but I've never really felt this nervous before. I slowly glanced up and quickly looked away, regretting my actions. He was giving me a full blown I-can't-be-asked-with-people-like-you-stare and I couldn't help but feel nervous.

"Can you draw me?" He suddenly asked

My eyes widened as I tried to process an answer. If I said no, he would probably murder me. He looked like one of those gangster people who crushes anyone unfortunate enough to get in their way. If not then I might seem like a really harsh and cold person and for some reason I didn't want to express myself to him like that. Especially as a first impression. If I said yes however, I would seem a bit too friendly or something along those lines. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to draw him… I still had around twenty minutes before classes started so…

"…if you want…" I replied, slightly hesitant.

He lifted his left leg over the dark polished, worn out wooden bench we sat on and rested his right on the table and left arm on his leg. To be honest, I really didn't mind drawing a picture of him at all. If anything I was rather overjoyed seeing as I got to look at the guy in detail and make an excuse of that me undressing him with my eyes is simply me making artwork.

I turned the paper over so I could start a new piece. I did a rough sketch of what body position he was in and all before I went into detail. I drew the outline of his face, quickly drew the body and clothes and after a few minutes, I set myself to drawing his facial features. I had already finished with the hair and all that was left was to do his face.*

I looked up from my sheet and stared into his eyes. A mixture of dark green and black. Feeling a blush creeping up my face, I quickly hid behind the paper and held it up higher to block my face which I was sure was extremely red. As I finished drawing the facial features to the last detail, I thought to myself.

'_What's wrong with me today…?'_

"I've fini-" I started but was interrupted by a door opening. Like a flash flood, students began to pour into the classroom, shortly followed by the homeroom teacher.

"Names Zoro, what's yours?"

I quickly looked to my right. Zoro had already returned to a normal sitting position, and was giving me a side glance.

"L-Luffy…" I replied. '_It was only fair to give him my name'_ I thought as I replaced my sketchpad back into my bag under the table. Zoro gave me a smirk before returning to face the front just as the bell went off, signalling the beginning of class time.

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><p><strong>AN: So? I know Luffy is acting incredibly OOC but oh well… this is a bit like the prologue and I won't be updating all that fast, with school work and whatnot. But I do intend to finish the story. Please review and tell me what you think so far, tell me if you spot any mistakes and criticism is welcome as long as it's not about the plot… plots a bit about my life story and all so I might get offended and flame you. But other than that, review till your hearts content.**

**Things marked with an * means that I will explain about them here in case you don't know what I'm talking about.**

**Gakuran - A typical uniform, much like a blazer worn by boys.**

**The style Luffy was drawing Zoro in was the One Piece art style.**


	2. Chapter 2: New World

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews and favourited's guys :D… sorry if you got an alert of a new chapter… I was correcting some mistakes I spotted in the first chapter and accidentally… well, you know. But oh well, this time it's for real and this chapter took a bit longer than I expected it to. I swear I come up with the most uncreative titles as well…**

**Anyway~~~**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

**New World**

The feeling that you get when you awake in a new environment. That's what I did not feel when I first woke up even though I should've felt that feeling. Then again I had insisted that I keep the room looking exactly the same as the room I had before we suddenly decided to move.

My hands fumbled on my bedside table, looking for the annoying device that was currently causing major discomfort. My hand formed a fist once I had found the device and said fist came down on the alarm, effectively cutting off the noise but also crushing the defenceless object. Once the noise was cut off, my offending arm dropped off the side of the bed and I fell back into the warmth of the bed.

A few moments passed before I mustered up the energy to pull myself out of bed. Preparing myself for the worst the day had to offer me, I slid into the pants provided by the school along with a black leather belt. I then put on the white long sleeved shirt followed by the black blazer. I walked out of my room, leaving it in the mess that it was, not bothering to put on a tie. I walked into the bathroom, quickly brushing my teeth before heading down the stairs and into the kitchen.

After eating a few waffles and having a cup of something, I put my black cotton socks on and slid into the my dark green boots. Grabbing my bag, along with the map to school, I said a quick 'goodbye' to no one in particular and closed the door behind me, setting off on my journey to school.

As I followed the routs shown on the map, my thoughts wandered back to what happened a few days ago.

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><p>"<em>Oi! Zoro!" A voice called from around my bedroom door.<em>

"_What do you want, Perona?" I asked. I was currently lying on my bed, arms providing a pillow._

"_Family meeting now in the living room" Was all she said before leaving._

_I sighed and heaved myself out of bed. Best to go to these meetings else I will probably face hell and probably not survive. Walking down the seemingly endless corridors of the mansion we lived in, I arrived in the main lobby and headed down the unnecessarily large marble staircase coated with a red carpet._

_I arrived in front of the living room door. It all seemed a bit too quite but I paid it no mind and opened the large oak door. I looked around and everyone was already in there._

"_Sit down, Zoro" came a voice._

_I looked and saw Mihawk sitting in on a large single chair dressed in a formal attire, his white shirt with a few buttons on the top undone. Smoker was leaning on the chair which Mihawk sat in.. Sanji was sitting on the opposite end in a couch with Perona who sat on one of the couch arms._

_I didn't know what was happening but it seemed serious so I went and sat down next to Sanji._

_Once Mihawk had felt that everyone was settled, he spoke up._

"_We are moving" was all he said before questions started popping up in my head._

_Moving? What do you mean by that? Moving where? How big of a move is this? Are we moving across the street or to some other town? Maybe across the country? I've always quite fancied living in Manchester but living in London isn't too bad._

"_Zoro"_

_I perked up._

"_You seem distracted" Mihawk said, his eyes looking deeply into mine._

"_No, just thinking…" I thought for a second and decided this would be the best chance to ask "Where exactly are we moving?"_

_At this, everyone listened closely for Mihawk's answer._

"_We shall be moving to Japan tonight so go and pack up everything that you need"_

_That was all he had to say._

"_What!" Sanji suddenly spoke up "When the hell was this decided? We're perfectly fine living here as it is!"_

_Perona nodded in agreement "I don't understand why we have to move. What about our school and your work?"_

"_We have already withdrawn the three of you from school and as for work, that shall not be of your concern" Mihawk replied "Go and pack, we shall be leaving for the airport at ten o'clock, four hours from now"_

_Mihawk left the room followed by Smoker. I never really understood the two of them. They had done weird things out of nowhere before and this tops them all. The fact that they were in some sort of relationship was besides the point._

"_Arrghh! Why don't we get a say in anything!" Perona whined_

"_I don't know but I believe they're doing this for the best so…" Sanji stood up and headed out of the room to most likely his room "it's best to do as they say and not question them"_

_I watched as Perona reluctantly followed Sanji out to where was most likely her own room. That left me standing there on my own. I didn't really know what to do and I didn't have a lot of stuff to pack so I decided that I would just bring my three swords, all my clothes and a few other stuff._

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><p><em>Four hours later and we were all headed out of the front door. Smoker was helping put luggage and other belongings into the boot of the car we rented while Sanji and Perona got in.<em>

"_I'm sure that you will fit into the new place" Mihawk's voice spoke from behind me "It's not as if you are leaving anything behind are you?"_

_He walked past me after locking the door to the mansion that we lived in. It was true. I never really paid mind to the place we lived in and never grew an attachment to anything. Everything that I needed was already in the trunk of the car._

_Smoker had helped everyone pack all the luggage and we were now driving away from the mansion that was once our home. Since it was night, the lights on the ground were shining rays of light directly at the building, illuminating it making it seem like some sort of royal palace you see out of fairy tales._

"_Are we going to rent some sort of hotel when we get there?" Sanji asked._

'_Seems like he's getting pretty comfortable with things…' I thought while I stared out the window. We were currently along a motorway, speeding past cars. I sat on the left side behind Mihawk and next to Perona who sat in the middle next to Sanji. My elbow was supported by the armrest and I rested my head in the palm of my hand, staring aimlessly at passing cars._

"_Oi! Move you swords Zoro!"_

"_Stop whining" I replied as I proceeded to move my three swords in between my legs so they wouldn't bother the whiny brat besides me. Last thing I need right now is someone complaining right into my ear._

_After some time, we reached the airport. It was the typical airport that you would see nowadays. We all headed inside, luggage in hand, and checked in. The woman at one of the counters looked at our tickets and confirmed them. She placed some sort of paper onto each of our luggage's and sent them through some flaps that would eventually lead them to the plane we would be boarding. It was already around midnight so there weren't a lot of people in the airport. Just as well because I didn't want to spend all that time standing around in a line._

"_The plane will be leaving in a few minutes" Mihawk said "If we go there now, we will be able to board the plane with a few minutes to spare"_

_That was all he said before we started to walk through some doors and across different corridors and even on one of those moving floor things. As we neared our boarding point, there was another woman standing in front of a door._

_We each gave her our tickets which she inspected and opened the door for us once she had confirmed them._

_By now we were within the plane. I somehow ended up sitting alone besides a window, Perona sat in front of me with Sanji besides her. Across them in the middle row of seats sat Mihawk with Smoker next to him. Nothing was said between us on the entire journey. I had decided to play a few games I fount on the small touch screen in front of me that was placed into the back of Perona's seat. I swear that the games were all rigged 'cos I lost at every one of them. In my frustration I decided to sleep the rest of the way. We had been on the plane for around two or three hours and since it was a direct flight from England to Japan, it would take another eight or so hours._

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><p><em>I woke up to the sound of Perona's voice. High pitched, whiny and the most annoying thing in existence. It was daylight when we arrived in Japan and according to the clock shown on my mini touch screen chair thing, it was 14:28.<em>

"_Hurry up and get washed! We'll arrive at the airport in a few more minutes and when that happens you won't be able to wash and I am NOT going to walk around with you reeking of sweat and dirt!" Perona complained while applying make up._

"_Yeah, yeah, why don't you eat some make up so your pretty on the inside too, bitch…" I mumbled as I got up from my seat._

"_Hey! I heard that!"_

_I ignored her as usual and went towards one of the bathrooms. As I stepped towards it, the door opened revealing both Mihawk and Smoker._

"…"

_There was awkward silence as I forced my mind not to imagine what the hell they had been doing in there. Thankfully, they didn't say anything and walked past me. I took a step forward to go into the bathroom but had a quick change of mind and turned towards the other bathroom instead._

_16:05 Tokyo, Japan._

_We were now facing the house which would more than soon become our home. It was smaller than the mansion which we used to live in. Scratch that, it was microscopically tiny compared to our previous house. Once Smoker had opened the door, we each headed inside to inspect it. I went upstairs and inspected it._

_The second floor had a reasonably large bathroom. A shower and a bathtub on the left side and a toilet on the right side with a sink in the middle, opposite to the door. So far so good…_

_As I walked, I past by three more bedrooms. At the end of the hallway, the were a flight of stairs. They as well were coated with the soft, cream coloured carpet. Curiosity got the better of me and I headed up the stairs. They went up a bit before making a ninety-degree turn to the left. I stopped at the turn, standing next to a vase of dried autumn flowers on the square bit of the stairs. The stairs seemed to keep going whilst curving to the direction above one of the bedrooms I passed. I smirked as I thought of what could possibly another bedroom._

_And to my pleasure, it was indeed another bedroom… well it was a room so whether or not it was a bedroom I didn't care. I was gonna make it my own room. It had the same, cream coloured carpet. Towards the far end of the room, the ceiling slanted down towards the ground, showing that the roof was probably right above 'his' room. I was pretty spacious and could fit everything a normal bedroom would have in it. There was a window in the slanted wall and a few feet away from the doorway._

'_I could put my desk there next to the window closest to the door…my bed next to the desk along the wall…a wardrobe opposite the bed along the other wall but far enough so it doesn't block the door obviously…" I thought to myself as I already started making plans for my own room._

_I dropped my bag in my already decided future room and headed back down the stairs, passing Sanji along the way._

'_I swear he just did NOT give me a death glare…'_

_I dismissed the thought and went back to the first floor to take a loot at the rest of the house. At the bottom of the stairs was the front entrance. Once at the bottom of the stairs, I turned a right and went through a door-less doorway into what seemed like the living room and dining room. Seems like they were connected which was fine with me. I always preferred watching TV while eating. Walking past the large table, I opened another door and came into the kitchen. It looked like the average sized kitchen for all I cared and could fit quite a few people into it. I also came across a small garden as I walked further down the kitchen and looked through the window. Apart from that, it was pretty much it for the house. And to be honest, I quite like it here._

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><p>I broke off my train of thoughts as I now stood in front of the school. It was currently 7:30 according to the massive clock I saw on top of the school building.<p>

_'How the fuck can there still be more than an hour to go before school!'_

Regaining my posture, I walked into school and surprisingly, someone was there. A young, female receptionist was sitting behind the front desk.

"Hey, err… I was recently enrolled here…?"

As usual, my attempts to get attention failed miserably whenever I tried. It seems to run like bloody clockwork when I'm not trying though. And thank god Mihawk had suddenly decided to teach the whole family Japanese for some absurd reason when we were young. It seemed a bit too coincidental but I suppose it was just… fuck that, it's too confusing.

"Are you the new student, Roronoa Zoro?"

I looked back at the receptionist and simply nodded. I watched as she sifted through a few papers while typing god knows what on the computer in front of her.

"Here is your timetable for the year and your homeroom shall be class M5, it's just down the corridor to the left" She pointed in the direction and I headed off after saying a quick 'thanks'.

The corridors had high ceiling and polished white flooring. Walls we spotless and it all just seemed a bit too tidy. I reached the room with the label above it reading M-5 is large block capitals. I suppose this is the reason I came early. To sleep in the classroom until some unwary soul wakes me up.

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><p>I heard a door slide open. A pause. Some footsteps. Another pause. I could sense that someone was standing besides me and they were probably looking at my sleeping form. Luckily my arms shielded my eyes from there sight so they didn't know I was awake. I took a peek from the gap underneath my arm and saw black leather shoes smaller than mine. I was now pondering about the persons appearance and watched as the feet shuffled about nervously.<p>

'The hell is he doing…?' I thought as I stared at the feet, still in my sleeping position lying on the desk. Then I remembered something Sanji did a while ago.

"_OI! MARIMO! GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY SEAT UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO POUR THIS SOUP DOWN YOUR BACK!"_

I don't know why I thought about a pissed off, crappy-cook just then but whatever the reason, it gave me a hint.

"Am I in your seat?" I asked. I heard no answer so I lifted my head from my arms and looked at the person. He looked surprised but then again, I did kind of sneak up on him with the whole pretending to be asleep thing. He then seemed to notice my ogling and replied with a shaky voice

"Y-yes…"

He was funny and I already started to like this kid, whoever he was. He wore the same uniform as me in a smaller size with different shoes and he looked slightly wet. He had reasonably long black hair and he wore a slight frown upon his gentle face. I slid over a bit to my right to make room for the kid. I could see why he liked the seat so much to want to sit in it. It was furthest away from the door, at the back of the classroom and next to a window that looked out to what seemed like the schools garden. It was a nice view to say the least.

The kid plopped down besides me and took out a sketchpad. Unknown to him, I had been watching him draw for a while until I decided to speak up.

"That looks good" I commented

I took note that he didn't sudden noises due to the way he tensed up. Normally I wouldn't bother chatting but I was bored so what the heck.

"Where'd you learn to draw like that?" I asked

"My uncle taught me…" he replied in a quiet voice but it was alright since the room was almost silent.

"Do you have anymore drawing on you?"

"No…"

"How long you been drawing?"

"A while…"

From what it looked like from my point of view, he was nervous since he had stopped drawing so I paused with all my questions but one kept tugging on my mind. I stared at him while I tried to fight back the thought while he slowly turned to look at me and then immediately retreated. Crap, did I give him one of my intimidating stares? Nice going Zoro. What a nice way to make a first impression. I quickly decided to salvage the situation and blurted out the question that was tugging at my mind.

"Can you draw me?" I asked. Surprisingly my voice didn't sound nervous at all which I was grateful for.

I watched as he gave it a deep thought before replying.

"…if you want…"

My inner spirit fisted the air with joy as I went to sit in a comfortable position so he could draw me. These models have to sit completely still for the artist right? I noticed that he looked at me a few times and I could have sworn I saw a tint of red across his cheeks.

A few more minutes passed by and I was starting to get fidgety. I wanted to stand up and stretch so badly but I didn't want to disturb the artist in front of me so I endured the pain.

"I've fini-"

Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a door opening. Students began to come running in, each student going to what seemed like a designated seat. Then an older woman walked in with a violet coloured folder in one arm and a small smile on her face. She had shoulder length ebony hair and wore a fitting purple jacket with off white trousers and black high heals.

"Name's Zoro, what's yours?" I asked

"L-Luffy…" he replied.

I gave him a smirk and returned my attention to the front.

"Good morning class" she greeted with a happy voice "before we start the lesson, I would like to announce that we have a new student joining us from now on"

At this the students in the class all started to mutter.

"I believe he is already in the room" she said, her eyes looking knowingly at me. The students eyes followed hers and the muttering got considerably louder.

'_Ah, crap…'_

My previously whooping inner spirit had now deflated into a gloomy mess.

"Would you like you come to the front to introduce yourself?" she asked

I knew that there wasn't really a choice for me so I reluctantly stood up and headed down to the front of the class. The woman handed me a pen and I write my name on the whiteboard. I turned and faced the students and prepared to face hell.

"My name's Roronoa Zoro, I'm nineteen years old and I recently moved here from England"

Almost in an instant, the class was filled with high pitched screams and 'Oh my god's.

"I can't believe _the_ Roronoa is in _our _school and _our _class no less!" I heard someone say.

"I am _so_ totally gonna like, be his boyfriend and like, completely worship him" I heard another say.

"He is _so _hot. He is like the hottest person I know now and he is like, the hottest person on my hot people list of hottness. And that green hair of his is like, _so_ hot right now. I mean, green hair, so naturally hot and so hot naturally"

I sweat dropped at the reaction and felt like running out of the class before the mobs with pitchforks came, asking for my body whether I be dead or alive. Preferably the latter if that ever happened.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to look at the smiling face on the woman who I now call the devil.

"Thank you, Roronoa-kun. My name is Nico-sensei but you may call me Robin"

I gave her a nod before returning back to my seat next to Luffy, carefully avoiding all the hands that reached out to try touch me in the most inappropriate places and ignoring all the lustful stares. Even some guys were outwardly looking at me like they were one of the girls. I did not like it and I sincerely hope that the rest of my school life wouldn't be like this. I mean the only reason why I'm so widely known is because my stupid dad (Mihawk) had decided to make me do kendo. Some crap about self defence and whatnot. Eventually I became widely known for winning many tournaments and for my unique three sword style. Luffy didn't look all that interested in me which, in turn, sparked my interest ironically.

According to Luffy, first period was always homeroom time. A place where people gather to discuss some stuff with their homeroom teacher regarding their grades and progress in school in private. Other than that, you could do pretty much whatever you wanted as long as you remained within the room. The first homeroom usually lasted about twenty minutes before we are sent off to do the actual subjects shown on our timetables. Then there was another 20 minute homeroom just before lunch. In other words we had homeroom, two forty minute lessons, break, another two forty minute lessons, homeroom again, lunch and then two more forty minute lessons. It seemed really lax so I think I'll be able to get used to this school.

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><p>Homeroom had ended and as we were walking out, last ones since we were at the back, Nico-sensei or Robin as we now call her, stopped me and Luffy.<p>

"Luffy-kun, seeing as you two already seem to know each other, would you mind showing Zoro-kun around the school for the whole of today? Just so that he gets used to how things work here. The two of you will get the whole day off from lessons. How does that sound?" she asked, smile never leaving her pretty face.

Luffy nodded slightly and walked out of the door.

"Have fun" she said before returning to her own business.

I walked out of the door and noticed Luffy, backs against the wall, waiting for me.

"I-I'll show you around the school first and we'll take a look at some of the lessons…" was all he said before getting off the wall to walk down the corridor.

_'I suppose I'll just follow him'_

We had walked around the school for a bit, stopped by the art room for a bit to look at the various pieces of work. No one was in there so it was alright. My stomach had begun to rumble but I paid it no mind. If I remember correctly, break would start any minute.

"Break's about to begin…" Luffy said while walking in front of me "I'll show you the rest of the school afterwards and then we'll have lunch"

I didn't really know what to do during break and I would probably have trouble finding Luffy if I split up from him so I stayed and followed.

I noticed that we were in the scenic area that was outside of class M-5. I looked up and saw Nic- Robin walk across the class room collecting sheets of paper. She saw us and gave a wave with her hand. I would've waved back or something but she turned away before I could.

"LUFFY!"

Me and Luffy turned towards the noise and saw some strange fellow with a long nose running like a mad man towards us. I was, naturally, a bit freaked out but what do you expect? Some guy with an absurdly long nose comes running at you with arms waving in the air and the first thing any normal person would do is run. At least I would.

"Lu…Luffy…!" said long nose guys placed both hands on his knees and took in deep breaths of air. Once he had finished he continued with what he was going to say.

"Luffy, have you heard of that famous guy coming to our SCHOOL~!"

'_Looks like he finally noticed me'_

"LUFFY! GET AWAY FROM HIM!" the strange guy suddenly grabbed onto Luffy's shoulders and threw him behind himself, both arms now in either side with his body acting like a protective shield.

"Usopp…?" Luffy questioned, sounding slightly tired.

So the guy's called Usopp… funny name for a funny person I suppose.

"Oi, Luffy… be careful around that guy… rumour has it that he's called the demon in the world of kendo… I wouldn't want to mess with him" Usopp warned, careful not to make eye contact with me. I found it amusing so I thought I'd play along with it a bit.

"Hey! You!" I suddenly raised my voice "what ya sayin' about me?"

"EEEEEEEEE! I'M SORRY! FORGIVE ME OH GREAT AND MIGHTY LORD!" Usopp almost immediately went down onto his knees and start bowing and mumbling a string of 'sorry' s.

'_Ok… maybe I went a bit too far'_

We had spent the rest of the time sitting on a wooden table under a tree. Although it was nearing winter, I really didn't mind the cold. Luffy on the other hand was trying his best not to shiver. Usopp had somehow gotten some massive coats out of his Mary Poppins bag and wore them all so that he looked like some demented snowman.

"Oi, Luffy, why don't we go sit inside…?" Usopp questioned.

"I don't like it in there…"

The reply was quiet and Usopp and I barely heard it. Then an idea struck me. Slowly I took off my jumper and placed it on the freezing boy, then placed an arm around his shoulder, almost dragging him into a hug. Unfortunately, I couldn't see his expression but I suppose it was a positive one since he didn't break away from the embrace. Either that or he had developed hypothermia although that was unlikely. I think.

* * *

><p>The day had gone by almost too quickly. We had spent most of the time walking slowly around the school, inspecting the different classrooms and teachers. We missed homeroom because we were stuck inside the library with the librarian blabbering a whole load of nonsense at us while throwing multiple books of different sizes into our arms. Lunch had gone by much like break and all too soon, school was about to end.<p>

'DINGDINGDINGDINGDING'

How I hated that damn bell. I never had one at my old school and I swore the one at this school made more noise than some of the other bells I've heard.

"I'll see you to-" Luffy started but was interrupted by me. Yes, me. I didn't want to leave him yet.

"You told me you walked home right?" I asked, already knowing the answer

"Yes"

"I'll walk with you"

I really didn't give the kid much choice as I nudged him forward and out of the school. The journey home was silent but I enjoyed it for many reasons. One being that Luffy was here. I never really liked anyone but I suppose Luffy just had something about him. Maybe it's because he's quiet and I like it when it's quiet. Whatever it is, I'll figure it out sooner or later. I'll be spending the rest of my life here so it doesn't really matter, unless Mihawk suddenly declares that he wants to move again. I may not have rejected or complained and neither had Perona or Sanji but I was pretty sure that they felt the same way about the move as I did. To suddenly move to the other side of the world without notice isn't what you would normally expect. Luckily I didn't have any meetings or stuff I had to do. Perona on the other hand had to say goodbye to her many friends while she packed up her many clothes. And who the hell cares about the crappy cook…

"I'll see you tomorrow…" Luffy said, almost a whisper

"Eh?" I looked up and saw that we were standing next to a small apartment building which I assumed was where Luffy lived.

The apartment itself went up a good ten or so floors and it looked like a small hotel. The brick walls were red and weren't worn away. The rood was covered neatly with black tiles. Windows lined with white reflected the orange rays coming from the setting sun. it looked like a pretty good place if you asked me.

"Bye" was all he said and turned to walk through the door sized gap between two waist high brick walls, same bricks used to make the apartment building. Luffy then opened the door, entered and closed the door behind him before walking up the stairs, not even acknowledging me.

I was hurt at that fact. I don't know why but why he didn't look at me, why he didn't speak much to me and why he seemed to want to get away from me hurt. I never had these feelings before so why I was having them now confused me. And when I'm confused it usually leads to bad news.

I decided it would be better to leave it at that and walk back home. I would see him tomorrow again anyway. He was probably the first person I would see tomorrow morning much like our encounter this morning. Now that I come to think of it, I still haven't seen the drawing he did of me. I wanted to go back but decided against it. But he may not bring his artwork tomorrow… _would _he be here tomorrow?

Questions of all sorts started to pop into my mind and before I knew it, I found myself staring at a split in the road.

Scarlet and jacinth stained the sky with patches of violet. Off white clouds drifted in the winter air and I suddenly felt stupid as I glared at the road split presented before me.

'_How the fuck did I get lost!'_

"Is the marimo lost again?"

'_Oh joy'_

Sanji casually walked up to me, hands in pocket and cigarette in mouth.

"Follow me little lost puppy"

"Go to hell" I casually commented. I may hate the guy but that doesn't mean that I don't remotely like him.

"So…"

"Don't start"

"I saw you hang out with one of the kids at school today" Sanji ignored my interruption and, to my annoyance, carried on speaking.

"What about it"

He better not start teasing me else I'll knock his head off.

"Hmmm" Sanji mused, taking a long drag of smoke before exhaling it out "do you like him?"

"W-WHAT!" I was shocked to say the least. What the fuck brought that up?

"I'll take that as a yes"

"W-WAIT! WHAT W-WERE YOU…? HUH!"

"Never mind, were home"

I looked and saw that we were indeed home and to my pleasure, discovered that Luffy did not live an awful far away from our small little house. Huzzah.

"Tadaima~*"

"Tadaima…"

Perona poked her head out of the living room doorway and gave us a hand gesture telling us to come over. I was confused as to why she was playing ninja all of a sudden but when we were forced to crawl over the carpet flooring, I started to question her motives.

"Smoker was doing something suspicious so you're going to see what he's up to" she whispered to us

"We? What about you?" Sanji questioned

"I'm the leader of this operation so go do your job"

"When the hell was this established?" I complained but groaned when I was hit over the head. "Why the fuck did you just hit me!"

"You were objecting to my decisions"

"That's because this is completely stupid!" I was hit over the head again and I would've lashed out if not interrupted.

Mihawk cleared his throat behind us which made us turn and gaze up at his staring eyes. We each slowly stood up, careful not to make any sudden movements. If we move slow enough maybe he wont see us…

"What were you three doing on the floor?" said predator asked

"Ahahahahaha, gokigenyou*, Mihawk-sama, ahahaha…"

'_Nice subject change Perona…'_

Oh yeah, now that I think about it, I haven't properly introduced you to the family yet have I? well standing in front of us is Mihawk. He's not our real father but decided to us all three of us in. I really hated him at first but slowly started to admire him for a reason or another. Next to me is Sanji. You could say that he's the second brother in this family, great cook, crappy attitude and contaminated with pervert syndrome. Perona, who had somehow slid away, was the youngest and only girl in the family. She had unnaturally natural pink hair which I thought was weird, then again I'm not the one to talk. She's usually out hanging with he friends but since we moved, I figured she would take some time to make new ones. Smoker who was sleeping on one of the dining room chairs was… are he and Mihawk together…?

"Hey, Sanji"

"What marimo?"

"What's the relation between Mihawk and Smoker?" I asked. Now that Mihawk had decided to ignore and walk away from our poor demonstration of stealth.

"How am I supposed to know? And frankly, I don't care" with that, the shitty dart brow walked off.

Ok, so we still don't know the relationship between Mihawk and Smoker. But other than that and me, it's pretty much it for the family. I headed upstairs and into the bathroom to run a bath. After a day of walking around practically non-stop, I kind of need to relax my muscles and slowly be pulled into a peaceful slumber. I quickly dashed up into my room to get some clean clothes and dumped the possessions on the floor, bed and whatever else surface I found suitable at that time.. I returned back to the bathroom and got in once the bath was almost full, I stepped in and let the hot water wash over my body.

After just laying there in the silent room, side the sound of a drippy tap, I decided to quickly wash my hair and get out.

'_Really need to get more of that mint shampoo…'_

Tying a towel around my waist and placing the dirty clothes into the laundry basket, I headed back out and up to my room. Just as I reached the top of the mini staircase, I heard a ringing.

'_Must be my phone' _I thought. The ringing came from inside the room and was proven as I opened the door to find it vibrating on the small desk I had put in. I also managed to prove that the room was absolutely freezing and obviously had no heating.

"I really need to get my own little heater if they don't have heating up in this room…" I murmured to myself. I was looking through the draws, trying to remember where I stuffed the underwear until my phone rang.

"Moshi mosh~*?"

"_Roronoa-kun, am I correct?"_

Almost instantly, I recognised the voice I was speaking to.

"Yeah, it's me" I said, placing the bag I previously dumped into a better location. As I rearranged a few items in my room, me and Robin had a chat on the phone.

"So what do you say?" she asked, almost as if she knew the answer. And she did.

"Yeah, sure" I smirked into the phone "sounds fun"

Our conversation ended there and I hopped into bed. I smiled into the night and slowly drifted off into sleep, thinking about what may happen tomorrow, and a certain young artist. I think I like it in Japan...

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry if it seems a bit rushed towards the end. As always, if you notice any mistakes, please notify me and don't forget to review. Next chapter should come out in a week or less.**

**Tadaima - I have returned/I'm home**

**Gokigenyou - Good afternoon**

**Moshi moshi(Moshi mouuuuush in Zoro's case) - Japanese greeting over the phone.**


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